| dc.description.abstract | My research considers articulations of identity and community in ro-minimal, a Romanian-born underground electronic music genre and subculture. Utilising digital ethnography, autoethnography and interviews, I examine fandom and distinction, gender inequality and discrimination, healing, performance, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ro-minimal in eight chapters. The research is bound up with the embodiment of the ethnographer though gender, national and professional identity, pandemic conditions, and health, and is based on a flexible methodology that varies with the health of the ethnographer.
The thesis provides important methodological insights into the application of autoethnography combined with digital ethnography, helpful for disabled/chronically ill researchers. The thesis contributes to understanding ro-minimal as a music subculture, articulating Romanian national identity, and an exclusive folklore-informed community while also part of a global minimal techno network. Within ro-minimal, gender relations are reproduced similarly to other techno subcultures, however they are reinterpreted in the Romanian patriarchal context. The thesis highlights how this is counteracted though the production of a femme sound (Lilleslåtten, 2016; Gadir, 2016). An important sociological contribution is tracing coping mechanisms within the shared experience of isolation amongst music fans during the pandemic (Pryor & Outley, 2021), and the role of analogue and digital network technologies for communal experiences of healing. The thesis contributes new insights into literature on music and healing, showing the therapeutic capacities of raves. Lastly, the thesis also considers the potential of NFTs within music-based communities and their role in community-making processes.
Keywords: ro-minimal, DJing, identity, community, fandom, gender, healing, performance, COVID-19 | en_GB |
